The American Israel Public Affairs Committee will hold an event featuring Holocaust scholar Stephen Berk at 7 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 23, at the Holocaust Museum and Learning Center in the Jewish Federation Kopolow Building, 12 Millstone Campus Drive. 

Berk, professor of Holocaust and Jewish studies at Union College, will discuss “From the Walls of the Ghetto to the Halls of Congress: One Community’s Journey Towards Political Empowerment.” The event, which is free and open to the public, and includes a dessert reception (dietary laws observed). 

Before the talk, AIPAC will hold a leadership reception at 6 p.m. for AIPAC club members who contribute a minimum of $1,500 to the organization’s 2014 campaign. RSVP requested to to Tali Jubelirer at 312-253-8984 or [email protected].

Berk has earned an international reputation for his expertise on the Holocaust, Russia and the Middle East. His course topics include Russian history, modern history of the Middle East, history of Poland, European history and Jewish history. He is also the author of several critically acclaimed works, among them “Year of Crisis, Year of Hope: Russian Jewry and the Pogroms of 1881-1882,” and “Our People Are Your People: American Jewry and the Struggle for Civil Rights.”